keeping the beast within caged
by Mew Siul
Summary: What if when the Goblet of fire spit out the fourth champion it realiced it had been tricked? What if it summoned help and said help ended up being a muggle from another world? What if said other world was the real world and the muggle was a fan of the Harry Potter book series? This story is motivated by how in all Harry Potter stories I read the SI is a witch or a wizard, not here
1. arrival

**Hello, this is a different Self Insert, most Harry Potter SI stories give the SI character magic power as a wizard or witch but what would happen if we came as the muggles we actually are, with knowledge from the books as our sole advantage.**

 **This will also be an AU of JAGS Wonderland, but you should know something, you see, I haven't been able to find barely any info about the tabletop game, I found out about the game in TV tropes and fell in love with it, so I'm basing it off purely on the TV tropes page and the single fanfic I found about it in the whole site.**

 **It will also crossover with undertale and possibly others.**

"Harry Potter"

Harry froze in his seat, the champions of the triwizard tournament were being chosen and just when it looked like it had ended, another piece of paper had come out, but what professor Dumbledore had read had to be some kind of mistake, for starters he had never put his name in the Goblet.

Harry turned to Ron and Hermione, beyond them he could see the other Griffindors looking at him open-mouthed.

"I didn't do it" Harry said looking at them confused "You know that"

"Harry, please come here" Dumbledore said, but while Harry was walking, enduring the glares and growing ire of everyone, something very strange was happening.

You see, the Goblet of Fire was as you all know, heavily enchanted in order possess an artificial intelligence and it was realizing it was being tricked, so before it shut down, it decided it was going to do one last thing.

Calling upon it's magic it searched for some kind of help and then the grail _pulled_.

Outside, Harry had just gotten to Dumbledore when to everyone surprise the Goblet starting up again.

"No way!" and "Again!" other students said, getting even angrier than before.

Another paper came out and Dumbledore read it, even more confused than before.

 _Till_

 _Champion of the goblet of fire_

After that the flame started growing larger and to the astonishment of EVERYONE in the large room, students, staff, and guest alike.

The sphere of flames, in fact, grew big enough to the point where it could easily contain a small person and indeed, there was a silhouette of someone in the fire, until…

FOSH!

CLING!

POW!

The figure, a child around 8 years old collapsed on the floor


	2. Conventions

Everyone stared.

Then, Dumbledore got close to the unconscious child and whispered "Enervate"

The child, Till wasn't it, stirred, opening his eyes slowly.

"Where… am I?" the boy asked

"You're in Hogwarts, my boy" Dumbledore said in a kind and helpful tone, but with the twinkle in his eyes absent.

"Hogwarts? It can't be, it can't be, IT CAN'T BE!" the boy whimpered, each time louder, Dumbledore looked at him with kindness and pity, poor child he surely felt lost and confused.

Dumbledore kindly helped him up "C' on my boy, you too Harry"

Harry nodded dumbly followed Dumbledore to the room of the champions.

As they opened the door, the champions looked at them and Harry and Till both realized how tall they seemed.

Harry stared at his feet, suddenly finding them very interesting and said "Well, we have news to tell you."

Till was even more shy and couldn´t say even that, just stare at the floor with downcast eyes silently.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and said calmly and without emotion "There has been no less than two most unpredicted and most unprecedented, these 2 are extra tri-wizard champion"

"Wat that suppogged to mean, they're just children" Fleur screamed in outrage and shock.

"That's what I'll like to know" A voice yelled from behind; Karkaroff.

Maxime, Crouch and Bagman entered too.

Till glanced nervously, it looked like he and Harry were in trouble.


	3. discussions

The other champions looked surprised. Krum pushed himself away from the wall, his face darkening. Cedric looked between Harry and Bagman, a confused smile on his face. Fleur, meanwhile, tossed her head and laughed.

"Oh, vairy funny joke, Meester Dumbledore…"

"Joke?" Dumbledore repeated. "No, this is no joke. Harry's name just came out of the Goblet of Fire, along with this young boy."

"Zair 'as been a mistake," Fleur said contemptuously. "'E is too young, 'e cannot compete!"

"Well, it is amazing," sad Bagman, stroking his chin and smiling at Harry. "But, you know, the age restriction was just another safety measure. And now that his name's come out of the Goblet, well, I don't think there's anything we can do about it, he's committed."

The door opened again, and a large group of people entered the room. Dumbledore led the way, followed by Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Professor McGonagall, and Snape.

Fleur immediately walked over to her headmistress. "Madame Maxime!" she said. "Zey are saying zat zis little boy is to compete also!" Harry felt a flash of anger; he was not a little boy!

Madame Maxime, meanwhile, was drawing herself up to her full height. "What is ze meaning of zis, Dumbly-dorr?" she said.

"I was rather wondering that myself." Karkaroff said snidely. "Two Hogwarts champions? I don't remember anyone telling me that the host school got two champions. Or did I perhaps not read the rules closely enough?"

"C'est impossible!" Madame Maxine said furiously, her hand gripping Fleur's shoulder hard enough to make her wince slightly. Dumbledore opened his mouth, but was interrupted by Karkaroff.

"I was under the impression that your Age Line would keep the younger contestants out. Had we known otherwise, we would have brought a wider selection ourselves."

"It is no one's fault but theirs, Karkaroff," Snape said softly, smirking. "Don't go blaming Dumbledore for Potter's determination to break rules. He's been crossing lines ever since he arrived here… and the boy is probably the same"

"Thank you, Severus," Dumbledore cut in finally, and Snape went silent, though he continued to smirk. Dumbledore turned to Harry, staring into his eyes. Harry though he felt… something, but was too worried to pay attention.

"Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire, Harry?" he asked quietly.

"No, sir," Harry responded. He heard Snape snort in disbelief, but ignored him in favor of Dumbledore.

"Did you ask an older student to put it for you?" Dumbledore continued, also ignoring Snape.

"No, sir," Harry repeated.

"Ah, but of course 'e is lying!" cried Madame Maxime.

"He couldn't have crossed the Age Line," Professor McGonagall said sharply. "I am sure we can all agree on that…"

"Dumbly-dorr must 'ave made a mistake wiz ze line," Madame Maxime said.

"It is possible, of course," Dumbledore said politely.

"Dumbledore, you know perfectly well you did not make a mistake!" Professor McGonagall said furiously, and had he not been under investigation, Harry would have nodded. "Really, what nonsense!" Professor McGonagall continued. "Harry could not have crossed the line himself, and Professor Dumbledore believes that he did not persuade an older student to do it for him, I'm sure that should be good enough for everybody else!"

"Mr. Crouch… Mr. Bagman," said Karkaroff, "you are our-er-objective judges. Surely you will agree that this is most irregular?"

Bagman shrugged and looked to Mr. Crouch. The older man looked slightly eerie, standing just outside the firelight. When he finally spoke, however, it was in his usual curt voice.

"We must follow the rules, and the rules state clearly that those people whose names come out of the Goblet of Fire are bound to compete in the tournament."

"Well, Barty knows the rule book back to front," said Bagman, smiling around at everyone. No one else reciprocated.

"I insist upon resubmitting the names of the rest of my students, Dumbledore," Karkaroff said coldly. "You will set up the Goblet of Fire again, and we will continue adding names until each school has two champions, it's only fair."

"But Karkaroff, it doesn't work like that," said Bagman. "The Goblet of Fire's just gone out, and it won't reignite until the start of the next tournament…"

"In which Durmstrang will most certainly not be competing!" Karkaroff roared. "After all, our meetings and negotiations and compromises, I little expected something of this nature to occur! I have half a mind to leave now!"

"Empty threat, Karkaroff," Moody growled as he slipped into the room. "You can't leave your champion now, he's got to compete. They've all got to compete, even Potter. Binding magical contract, like Dumbledore said. Convenient, eh?"

"Convenient?" Karkaroff said, trying to sound dismissive, though his clenched fists gave him away. "I don't know what you mean, old man."

"Don't you?" Moody said coldly, glaring at Karkaroff with his magical eye. "It's very simple. Someone put Potter's name in the Goblet, knowing that if he came out, and it seems they made sure he would, that he would be forced to compete."

"Evidently, someone 'oo wanted to gibe 'Ogwarts to bites at ze apple." Madame Maxime huffed.

"I quite agree, Madame Maxime," Karkaroff said, nodding to her. "I shall be lodging complaints with the Ministry of Magic and the International Confederation of Wizards…"

"If anyone's got reason to complain, it's Potter," Moody growled. "But, funny thing, I don't hear him saying a word…"

Till just rolled his eyes at the fact that no one was paying attention to him but, oh well, he _did_ want to avoid being the center of attention

"Why should 'e complain?" Fleur Delacour asked, stamping her foot. "'E 'as ze chance to compete, 'asn't 'e? We 'ave all been 'oping to be chosen for weeks and weeks! Ze honor for our school's, ze thousand Galleons in prize money…"

"The chance to die a horrible death, especially for an underage wizard," Moody interrupted, his magical eye swiveling to glare at Fleur. Silence filled the room.

"Moody, old man… what a thing to say…" Bagman said weakly after a moment, rubbing his forehead. Karkaroff scoffed.

"Well, of course, we all know Professor Moody considers a morning wasted unless he's found at least six plots to murder him before lunchtime. Apparently he's now branching out to his students…"

"Imagining things, am I?" Moody asked quietly, taking a step towards Karkaroff. "Seeing things, eh? It was a skilled witch or wizard who put the boy's name in that cup…"

"Ah, what evidence is zere of zat?" Madame Maxime asked.

"Because they tricked a powerful magical object!" Moody hissed. "It would have taken a powerful Confundus Charm to bamboozle the goblet into forgetting that there are only three schools. They likely put Potter in under a fourth school, to guarantee that he came out."

"You seem to have given this a great deal of thought," Karkaroff said, waving his hand dismissively. "And it is a very ingenious theory… though, of course, I heard you recently got it into your head that one of you're birthday presents contained a cunningly disguised basilisk egg, and smashed it to pieces before realizing it was a carriage clock. So you'll forgive us if we don't take you completely seriously…"

"It's my job to think like Dark Wizards, Karkaroff," Moody said, taking another step forward. "As you should well know…"

"Alastor!" Dumbledore said warningly. It took Harry a moment to realize that this must be Mad-Eye's name. Moody fell silent, but continued to smirk at Karkaroff, whose face was burning.

"How this situation arose, we do not know," Dumbledore said after a minute. "It seems to me, however, that we have little choice but to accept it. All four of these students have been chosen by the Goblet of Fire, all four are bound to compete."

"But Dumbly-dorr…"

"If you have an alternative, my dear Madam Maxime, I would be delighted to hear it." She fell silent, glaring at both Dumbledore and Harry.

"Well!" Bagman called, looking excited. "Shall we crack on, then? Got to give our champions their instructions, haven't we Barty?"

Mr. Crouch glanced up from his contemplation of the floor.

"Oh, yes, the instructions." He stepped forward into the light, and Harry was surprised to see that he looked ill. There were dark shadows below his eyes that indicated he hadn't been sleeping well, and his skin looked papery. His voice remained strong, however.

"The first task will test your daring, so we are not going to be telling you what it is. Courage in the face of the unknown is an important quality in any wizard. The task will take place on November the twenty-fourth. You are only permitted to bring your wand, and are forbidden from asking or accepting any help from teachers." He paused to take a breath. "After the First Task, you will receive information about the second. Owing to the demanding nature of the tournament, all champions will be exempt from end of year tests."

"I think that's all, Barty," Dumbledore said, watching Mr. Crouch with concern. "Are you sure you won't be staying at Hogwarts tonight?"

"I must get back to the Ministry," Mr. Crouch said quickly, moving towards the door. "Busy times. I left young Weatherby in charge… must see how he's doing." He was about to leave, when a voice interrupted him.

"Wait a moment, what about ME!" That made everyone stop in their tracks and look at the boy. "I CAN'T compete in this, how was my name even in the goblet?"

"What happened was a security feature activating, if the goblet ever took notice it was being cheated it would activate one last time to summon someone who it considered could counteract the cheating as it's champion"

"What" Both Moody and Till said in unison as a surprised whisper

"I'm sorry young man, but you have to compete, Till"

"Till?" the boy breathed out "That isn't my name."

If the goblet had released a false name, perhaps he could get out of this mess to some extent "I am…"

He closed his eyes, he knew he was bad with names but he would never forget his own…

"My name is &%$·&/"

What was going on?

He repeated himself, this time with panic entering his voice,

"My name is &%$•&/"

"Tell us your damn name" Moody said a little too forcefully and this Till was flat out screaming in horror.

"MY NAME IS &%$·&/"

"It's useless, as part of a protection program the name and hometown of the champion of the goblet are kept him and the goblet gives the champion a name that he or she was tinking about at the moment before summoning them at what he decides was their prime."

 _So that isn't his real name_ thought Harry.

"But I can't do it, I'll be ripped to shreds!"

"I know, but I'm afraid you don't have a choice, I'm sorry"

Then Crouch turned and left, followed by Bagman, who seemed to be trying to get him to reconsider. The other Heads, meanwhile, were leading their champions away. Fleur and Madame Maxime were speaking quietly in French while Krum and Karkaroff walked in silence.

"Harry, Cedric, I suggest you head up to bed," Dumbledore said gently, still looking after Mr. Crouch. Finally, he turned to them and smiled. "I'm sure Hufflepuff and Gryffindor are eagerly waiting for the chance to celebrate, I will take care of our little friend here."

Till looked at him in an apprehensible manner.

'Over what?' Harry thought grumpily, but he nodded politely to Dumbledore and left the room with Cedric. They walked through the empty Hall in silence.

"So," Cedric said with a forced smile. "Seems like we're competing again."

"Yeah," Harry muttered, not looking at the older boy.

"So… tell me," Cedric said, stopping them at the foot of the marble stairs in the Entrance Hall. "How did you get your name in the goblet?"

Harry felt a flash of anger. "Weren't you paying attention? I didn't."

"Ah, Ok," Cedric said after a moment, though it was painfully obvious that he didn't believe Harry. With that, he turned and headed through a small door on the right. Harry watched him go before slowly heading up towards the Gryffindor tower.

Would anyone besides Ron and Hermione believe him? Unlikely. Precious few had believed that he was not the Heir of Slytherin in his second year, and that had been even more ridiculous.

He hissed in frustration. How had he gotten into the Goblet? Moody was right, only a powerful witch or wizard could have put him in. Did that mean he was right about the rest of his theory as well? Who would want to kill him?

'Well, that's an easy question,' he thought grimly as he arrived on the seventh floor. 'Voldemort's wanted me dead ever since I was born.' But how had Voldemort pulled this off, he was supposed to be all but powerless.

Then, the memory of the dream he had had before the World Cup returned to him. Voldemort had indicated there was a plan in the working for Harry's death, that all he needed was a faithful servant at Hogwarts. Was that plan in motion?

He was interrupted in his musings by his arrival at the portrait of the Fat Lady. She wasn't alone; one of the people from a portrait in the room he and the other champions had been briefed in.

He just skipped the conversations and entered unaware that he wasn't the only one having a bad day.


	4. decisions and sorting

_(Till's POV)_

After that I was led into what I was told was Dumbledore's office.

I had to keep dodging rocks and fallen pillars, or at least what my mind interpreted as falling rocks and pillars, from what I remembered about the series, this was the work of a spell to hide the castle from muggles.

In the end, Dumbledore convinced me that it was better to just be held by his hand.

I ended up agreeing. Damn these childish emotions I'm feeling, I'm starting to think like a child too, not that I was the most mature person even before the de-age, but still…

After a long walk we found ourselves in front of a broken gargoyle until he spoke a single word.

"Cockroach Clusters"

At this the "broken" wall stepped aside to reveal the staircase we all knew was there.

We entered and walked into the chamber.

Surprisingly, the spell didn't really decay the room, it looked to me mostly the same as I expected it to look.

We both sat down on opposite sides of the table.

And then, as I suspected several meetings that had changed the course of history in the last century, this meeting began how any Potter fan would have expected.

"Lemon Drop?" He asked holding out the sweet.

I took it and politely thanked him before putting it in my mouth, I enjoyed the sweets.

"So, my boy, mind telling this old man more about who you are and where you come from?"

"Well, due to interesting circumstances I been de-aged and now go by _Till._ "

Dumbledore nodded.

"And where do you come from?"

I told him the name of town and country, or rather, tried to in the town's case.

Dumbledore nodded again.

"Now, next question, are you a squib?"

I instantly understood he was talking about the contrast of me knowing about Hogwarts in the Hall and me needing to be guided by the hand because I got hit by anti-muggle defenses.

I decided to answer semi-honestly.

"Not quite, but close, I'm a muggle, but someone I now is a wizard, like you, I too have contacts, Mr. Dumbledore.

I made sure to look aside, remembering Snape's comment that visual contact is necessary for legilimency.

"Then you do realize you will need to be obliviated once the tournament is over right?"

I knew he would say that but I didn't want to hear it.

"I know, sir" looked down

I shuddered, having trouble for a moment looking up.

"I don't want to forget!" I said, a bit more forcefully than I meant to, and snapping my head up to look at his eyes and he sighed and looked old, like, older than he usually looked.

Wow, so that's what he looked like when he was like this.

"I'm afraid neither of us can do anything against it little one."

He got up and said:

"Now that _that's_ done, we have to decide where you'll sleep, and for that I've come up with a great idea, we're going to sort you and you'll sleep and live in a house, even though you're not a student, you got to live somewhere in the castle."

He got the sorting hat from its self and without a word, gently put it in my head.

I was nervous and then I heard a voice.

" _Hump, now aren't you the most interesting little thing. A muggle, the first to ever be sorted in a millennium, and a quite literally otherworldly one to, so the magical world is just a book series where you come from?_ "

 _Yes, but please don't tell anyone that._ I thought, hoping he would hear me.

"Yes, I can hear you and don't worry I won't, now I have a few questions to ask you, first, where do you think you should go and why?"

 _Well, I don't really care much but Gryffindor would be nice._ I told him

" _Why? Treading through your mind you fit in any house other than Gryffindor; you're smart, one of your biggest fears is to be a bad friend and you have many Slytherin traits, but you're definitely no Gryffindor_."

 _I know, but it's not about which house I belong in since I'm not even a student. I actually stand a lot to lose in Slytherin because, however noble it may have been in some distant past, NOW, it is a house of jerks, evil, and Death Eaters who don't know what the positive qualities of being a Slytherin mean, or at least overflowing with that type of people, Ravenclaw is acceptable, but it wouldn't be practical for me to have to answer a riddle every time I enter and exit._

 _Gryffindor however works nicely for my plan._

I smiled after telling the hat this.

" _And what is this plan of yours_?" the hat asked me.

 _I have a plan to make myself powerful, more powerful than any witch and wizard in the planet, and the best part is, I think I can actually pull it off._ My grin widened.

" _Ah, I see, in that case it's obvious you must be SLYTHERIN_ " the hat spoke, saying that last word aloud.

Dumbledore reached out to remove the hat but I asked him to give me one last moment and gripped the hat.

"What are you doing? Why did you put me there?" I asked the hat in an angry whisper.

" _Because in my thousand years sorting students only a small handful ever argued for their house in such a pragmatic manner and already harbored ambitions of gaining ultimate power_."

I silently removed the hat and handed it over to Dumbledore.

I then decided to ask one last thing.

"Can you please explain my presence and nature to the students tomorrow?"

Dumbledore nodded "Oh, by the way the password is "Green", do you need any help getting to the common room?"

I paused, I had almost forgotten.

"Yes, please summon a house elf"

"Alright then, Winky!"

Crouch former elf appeared.

"Please, Winky, kindly guide this young boy to the Slytherin dorm"

She looked at him, then at me.

"Okay, headmaster."

She then grabbed my hand and we walked out.

( _3º person POV_ )

Dumbledore watched the little boy leave and waited until he was gone to put on the Sorting Hat.

"Did you find anything interesting in his mind?" Dumbledore asked.

" _Oh yes, I found this mind very, very interesting_."

"Did the boy enjoy his house?"

" _I can't tell if he will like it or not, but he's definitely a true Slyttherin to the core_."

 **There, I did some soul searching and decided that if I ever attended everyone's favorite magic school, I would be sorted into the serpent house.**

 **Especially in such a situation.**

 **What's Till's plan? That comes later.**


End file.
